Matthew Poole and continuators on Ephesians 5:14

14. Wherefore he saith , Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead , and Christ shall give thee light .

Either God by the Prophets of whose preaching this is the summ; it may allude in particular to Isa. 60.1. Or, Christ by his Ministers in the preaching of the Gospel, who daily calls Men to arise from the Death of Sin by repentance, and encourageth them with the promise of Eternal Life.

The same thing in two different expressions. Sinners in some respects are said to be asleep, in others to be dead. They are as full of Dreams and vain Imaginations, and as unfit for any good action as they that are asleep are for natural, and they are as full of Stench and loathsomeness as they that are dead. Here therefore they are bid to awake from Sin as a sleep, and to arise from it as a death. The meaning is that they should arise by Faith, add repentance out of that State of spiritual death in which they lie while in their Sins.

The light of peace and joy here, and Eternal Glory hereafter. The Apostle intimates that what is the way of Christ in the Gospel should likewise be the practice of these Ephesians whom he calls light in the Lord, viz. to reprove the unfruitfull works of darkness, and awaken sleeping, dead Sinners, and bring them to the light of Christ.

Marginal references: Or, it.; Rom. 13.11, 12, 1 Cor. 15.34. 1 Thess. 5.6.; Joh. 5.25. Rom. 6.4. Chap. 2.5. Col. 3.1.